A look at Canada – by the numbers

Take a look at the current state of the country and its citizens – by the numbers. The statistics and facts speak volumes. 

 

Consider the country

 

0.5 per cent: Canada has had the lowest rate of economic growth in the G-7 over the last decade. In 10 years, the Canadian economy has grown less than one per cent. Germany’s economy is the second worst performing economy and it was more than nine times stronger (4.7 per cent). Other G-7 nations performed better: U.K. (7.7 per cent), France (8.2 per cent), Japan (8.7 per cent), Italy (13.2 per cent) and the U.S. recorded the best performing economy over the last decade (20.7 per cent).

 

40.1 per cent gap: Canada’s economy relative to the U.S. economy has been sagging through the past 10 years. When Justin Trudeau took office the per-person value of all the goods and services produced in our economy (Canada’s GDP) was US$50,055 (inflation-adjusted). That same year, per-person GDP in the U.S. was US$60,212, which represents a 20 per cent gap between the countries. Today the gap is double that (40.1 per cent) reflecting a Canadian economy that has lost ground with the country we used to think of as equal in living standards and economic opportunity. In 2024, Canada’s per-person GDP was US$51,649, and the U.S. was $72,350.  

 

67 per cent: More GDP data from Statistics Canada and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show Canada’s real GDP per capita grew at only 1.1 per cent annually since 1981. Canada’s productivity gain was 61 per cent since 1981, compared to 127 per cent in the U.S. Today the country’s economy is performing at a 67 per cent rate of the economic performance south of the border (in 1981 that rate was 94 per cent). 

 

– 0.2 per cent: Statistics Canada reported that the country’s economy shrank in the last quarter of 2025. Canada is the only G-7 nation to see its economy contract instead of grow.

 

Less than 1.1 per cent: At the beginning of the year, the Bank of Canada forecasted Canada’s GDP growth in 2026 to be 1.1 per cent, less than half that projected for the American economy (2.6 per cent). The Bank Governor Tiff Macklem stated this week that the Canadian forecast is now out of date, “Near-term growth looks weaker than expected.” TD also predicted that business investment will actually be negative in 2026. 

 

255,800: Statistics Canada reported that Canada lost 84,000 jobs in February. In the last six months there has been a total of 255,800 jobs lost; the private sector shed 269,200 jobs while the public sector gained 25,700. Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to the Statistics Canada news by stating, “If you look at the performance of the labour market over the course of the last 6 months, we have created over 80,000 jobs net.” What? 

 

39: Canada ranks 39 out of 39 in the international OECD forecast for economic growth through to 2030. Canada has the worst performing economy of advanced economies around the world – at less than half the average growth rate for OECD member countries through 2030. 

 

Consider Canada’s bigger government 

 

$502,830,000,000: The Carney government just tabled in parliament its spending plans for fiscal year 2026-27. Ottawa plans to spend more than half a trillion dollars next year. For this fiscal year, it had planned to spend $486.9 billion and, to date, it has spent more than $510 billion. The Carney government is spending more than the annual amounts spent by the Trudeau government. Looking over the term of a five-year mandate, the Carney government plans to spend $47.8 billion more on programs than the Trudeau government projected over the same period. 

 

$53.7 billion: In the upcoming fiscal year 2026-27, Canada’s total debt will demand interest payments of $53.7 billion. Canadian taxpayers are paying $1.03 billion a week in interest on the national debt – that is $147 million a day, $6.125 million an hour – or $1,700 in a blink of an eye. 

 

43 per cent larger: The Liberals have ushered in a new era of bigger government in Ottawa. There are 110,738 more federal public servants employed today than when Trudeau took office in 2015. The federal bureaucracy grew 43 per cent larger, triple the rate of population growth (15 per cent) over the same period. In 2024 there were 367,772 people employed in the federal government and 43 per cent of them were employed in the National Capital. In 2025, the government trimmed 9,800 jobs but the cost of the bureaucracy actually increased last year. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation reports in its latest study that the cost of the federal bureaucracy increased 80 per cent in 10 years and nearly 40 per cent of them are paid a six-figure salary. 

 

$143,271: The federal budget office reported that the average federal employee makes $143,271 in annual pay and benefits. That total increased 5.1 per cent last year. The federal bureaucrat on average makes more than two times the national average salaried Canadian, who is making approximately $67,500 according to data from Statistics Canada. 

 

42 per cent: To pay for the country’s bigger government, Canadian households pay 42 per cent of their income on taxes, which is more than the cost of a family’s essentials like housing, food and clothing – all combined.

 

Consider Canadians’ financial burden 

 

+ 4 per cent: This week the government announced the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.8 per cent on a year-over-year basis in February, and this followed a 2.3 per cent increase in January. A caveat to this inflation data was provided; the lower figure reflects the government’s GST/HST tax holiday which provided a relief to consumers’ through Christmastime purchasing food, alcohol, and gifts. The data taken in the first days of February also does not factor the huge hikes in gasoline; instead, the 1.8 per cent figure was arrived at by decreasing the cost of gas at the pumps by 14 per cent. Financial analysts point to other living costs that are not factored with the CPI, such as property tax increases (+5.6 per cent), childcare and education costs (+4.0 per cent), and insurance costs (+8.0 per cent). Some analysts put the real inflationary number at greater than four per cent, more than double the government’s CPI figure. 

 

5.4 per cent: The same government’s CPI media release also included news that food costs increased 5.4 per cent year-over-year in February. Food inflation is 3.6 per cent above the overall inflation figure and it leaves Canada with the fastest-growing food prices in the G-7. Last year, Canada’s food prices rose 6.2 per cent, again the highest inflation figure in the G-7 and double the food cost increases south of the border. Since the federal Liberals took office in 2015, an annual family grocery bill has more than doubled, from $8,286 to $17,572.   

 

103 per cent: Canadian household debt is the greatest of all G-7 nations with a debt load of 103 per cent as a share of the GDP. The second worst citizenry is in the U.K., who are a full 20 per cent better off than Canadians with a household debt load of 80 per cent. An American household has a debt load of 73 per cent as a share of GDP. 

 

One-third: Canadians now owe $1.77 for every dollar of disposable income. One-third report they are unable to pay their bills every month. And 36 per cent say they rely on their credit cards to get by. Households have taken on $1.95 billion more in credit card debt in December 2025, and an alarming $7.99 billion of debt since Mark Carney took office. In fact, Equifax observed Canadians’ increased debt load is an “alarming acceleration of financial stress.” 

 

So how bad is it? 

 

This week Canada’s Human Rights Commission issued a report that concluded Canada’s economy is so poor it represents “a substantial cost of living crisis which at its core is a human rights crisis.” The commission reported a challenging situation, as “an alarming number of people in Canada face food insecurity as well as increasing levels of poverty and homelessness.” Inflation, housing shortages, and rising poverty rates have put the “the fundamental human right to an adequate standard of living at risk” for a great many Canadians. 

Last words go to Tristan Hopper of the National Post who wrote on Mark Carney’s first anniversary as the country’s prime minister: “Carney was elected to save the economy. It’s only gotten worse. Lost jobs, stagnated productivity, and Mexico now claims the title as the largest U.S. trading partner.”